Musings: Life lessons for Girl Scouts
Selling cookies also offers girls, like Catalina Gavidia, 7, of Westbury, above, the opportunity to develop five core business skills Credit: Danielle Silverman
The next time you buy a box of cookies from a Girl Scout, understand that you’re doing much more than buying a box of cookies. You’re helping young girls become confident leaders and entrepreneurs.
The annual tradition of buying Girl Scout cookies began in 1917, when the girls baked and sold homemade cookies to raise money for their troop activities.
Selling cookies also offers girls, from kindergarten through high school, the opportunity to develop five core business skills: goal-setting, decision-making, money management, people skills, and business ethics.
They are learning financial literacy, public speaking, and problem-solving. These skills lay the groundwork for future success. The girls also learn to handle rejection, negotiate a sale, and manage money, all invaluable lessons many carry with them the rest of their lives.
Every box of cookies sold supports troop activities and community service projects, such as camping trips and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workshops. It also supports charitable initiatives like creating care packages for deployed troops, assembling hygiene kits for homeless shelters, and raising funds for animal shelters.
Meanwhile, Girl Scouts learn the importance of empathy, civic responsibility, and social impact — values that will guide them into adulthood, promoting the Scouts’ mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character.
According to the Girl Scouts organization, more than half of female entrepreneurs and business owners in the United States were once part of a Girl Scout troop.
Sure, Thin Mints are delicious and Samoas are hard to resist, but the real treat is knowing that your purchase fuels the dreams of young girls. It empowers them to dream bigger, aim higher, and unbox their futures.
— Tammy Severino, Nesconset
The writer is president and CEO of the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County.
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